News & Announcements

Direct Mail Is All About Results…

Category: Print

Overall, in terms of printed applications we are seeing about five categories. In advertising we see printed inserts and business reply cards, in collateral we work with brochures and catalogs, direct mail operates with self mailers, dimensional mailers, post cards, letters, envelopes or statement stuffers, identity mail includes business cards and stationary, while traceable coupons, packages and interactive devices like perforated cards, stamp sheets and scratch offs work in a separate versatile category.

These primary print applications function as the preferred method to getting results and on average will yield $10 for every $1 spent, making it the most effective advertising medium of the modern day (Brady and Romano, Database Printing). Nonetheless, due to the lack of alignment between the core needs of the marketing program with the printed material, companies are failing to meet their goals.

If you are a marketer experiencing complications with postal regulations, you should readjust your paper choices to those that will meet USPS specifications. Ask your commercial printer about papers that are postal guaranteed. Nothing is worse than large stack of undeliverable mail, so work with paper that meets approved specifications and make an effort to double check and update your mailing data. If the issue is cost, ask for options. Postal costs are always rising, making direct mail especially intimidating. To keep your costs in line, consider if it is possible for you to print double sided to reduce bulk and weight. Use paper that has a higher opacity-to-weight ratio to minimize show through and ensure that you also meet the size and weight regulations of the USPS.

Let’s look at the bigger picture-are you seeing the expected response rate for your direct mail? If not, your simple decision to print with color or variable data can change your entire marketing story line. Customized color direct mail proves to achieve response rates that are 5.6 times higher than static, simple mailers. Other suggestions for increasing attention retention and also results, include choosing brighter and whiter paper sheets. Some of the best response rates occur because a mailing had message continuity, multiple exposures and aimed to personalize the B2C relationship. Another issue for you may be a client’s issue. If the concern is about the environment, you should go ahead and address it directly by revealing facts on your direct mail that cover their issues. For example, did you know that the paper and forest industry plants 1.7 million trees daily, in the U.S. alone? That’s three times more than what gets harvested. The industry is one of the world’s largest users of renewable energy. In fact, 60% of the energy used to make paper comes from carbon neutral renewable energy sources.

No matter what your concern may be, the right adjustments to your direct mail and clear communication will ensure that your mailing is a success. If you have a particular question or concern, please email me or reference our mailing specifications.

Posted on Jun 15, 2010.

U.S. Government Printing Office

Category: Print

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You Can’t Escape Integrated Marketing

Category: Business

Business owners and marketers are familiar with the terms “multichannel marketing” or “integrated marketing.” If this rings a bell, then you have heard all about the excellent ROI, high success and profit rate and you may even have seen these services in action. No matter where you stand with these marketing services offered by printers, you must have thought, “Well, OK, but what about the marketing campaigns that utilize all these services and don’t see them succeed?” What is the root of this problem and as marketing service providers, what are printers doing to ensure the generation of revenue?

The bottom line is that “this economy” has sprouted strict regulations for a direct mail campaign. The basic formula behind this is: targeting the correct audience, with the correct offer at the right time. Sales lead generation is being served on a silver platter when your direct mailing piece includes a PURL. Basically, incorporating the internet with print is more than just an attention getting form of outreach, it is a necessity. You will never have a 100% guarantee that all responses to your marketing campaign will equate to financial gain. This may seem like common knowledge, but the majority of marketers aren’t necessarily doing key things to identify ideal customers. Taking the time to do market research and even determine the marketing materials customers respond to (i.e What type if direct mail is appropriate? Maybe you will be more successful when incorporating email and telemarketing with a mailing cycle?) will help you to become a more effective player in the game.

The real question is, "Will my offer be a solution for my customer?" You must assess whether you can even meet the needs of the client. Moreover, are you planning to or have you already invested in the necessary technology or applications that will help you meet those needs? Your challenge is to leverage the missing links and implement accordingly. Reaching your prospects and then grabbing and holding their attention so that they WANT to contact you requires careful and creative design. What kind of experience do you want your customer to have with your material? Is the offer an appealing one? If you choose to utilize PURL's, what will your prospect receive in exchange for entering their information? The goal is to market to the needs and the interests of a well defined target audience.

If you've played all your cards right and made an effort to match yourself to your client then you should find yourself in the best case scenario: You have a promising prospect list and creative material that goes with it. Be aware that this will never be enough, because no matter how innovative and clever your one marketing campaign is, it will require you to do a little conversion. You must still hook these prospects and convert the leads into paying customers, and that takes effort. Maintain and develop a long term business relationship through ongoing communication. The possibilities for this are endless! Follow up with your list by sending out regular case studies, announcements of new technologies, work samples, articles from magazines where you have been mentioned or featured, join social media networks like facebook, twitter and linkedin. The potential for this is truly limitless, especially if you continually measure and track responses to ensure appropriate communications.

In closing, a truly effective and cohesive integrated marketing solution should be flexible so that it accommodates tracking and response measurement along with fulfillment. Your technology solutions should offer a depth of capabilities and firm foundations for evolution by supporting a wider range of services for your customers and for you. So, break the barriers standing between you and your customers and attract leads toward your company!

Posted on Jun 10, 2010.

Direct Mail Benefits Recruitment

Category: Marketing

Chances are that your historical data (aka: the ROI on your last direct mail marketing campaign) did not exceed its full potential. Why and how are marketers seeing significant rises in their response rates? Our case study illustrates a simple shift in perspective: not doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. TAG marketing and recruiting in the business services vertical market, was use to seeing a .05% response rate for their recruitment efforts. Imagine their elation when a simple shift in their mailing routine brought their numbers up to a 5% response rate.

With an objective to increase the number of applicants for home care field staff positions, TAG wanted an alternative solution to their very costly newspaper, hit-or-miss, advertising.

In a total of two weeks, the recruitment agency had come up with an action plan to target vocational nurses from a targeted mailing list. The agency divided the mailing list into two areas: gender and ethnicity. In order to make each offer relevant to each individual a personalized URL was created for each recipient to respond directly to the personalized mailing that was received. In the mailer, which had the recipient’s name incorporated into the copy and the gender/ethnicity image that was relevant to them, each recipient was told about job opportunities at the company. They were asked to go to a PURL to take a survey and find out more about the position.

The cross media service enabled TAG to track the respondents that visited the site in a real time basis. This prompted the client’s human resources department to connect with the nurse shortly after they had visited their personalized website. In the end, not only did TAG save $70,000 in recruitment costs, they now had the ability to track responses and gain insight into each recruit for future marketing efforts.